100 ON THE EXCESSIVE APPEARANCE OF INSECTS. 



take the nests, and caught thousands with hazel twigs 

 tipped with bird-lime ; we have since employed the boys 

 to take and destroy the large breeding wasps in the 

 spring." 



(402.) " In the sultry season of 1783, honey-dews were 

 so frequent as to deface and destroy the beauties of my 

 garden. My honeysuckles, which were one week the 

 most sweet and lovely objects that eye could behold, be- 

 came the next the most loathsome, being enveloped in a 

 viscous substance, and loaded with black Aphides or 

 smother flies." 



(403.) " On the 1st of August, about half an hour after 

 three in the afternoon, the people of Selborne were surprised 

 by a shower of Aphides, which fell in these parts. They 

 who were walking the streets at that time found themselves 

 covered with these insects, which settled also on the trees 

 and gardens, and blackened all the vegetables where they 

 alighted. These armies, no doubt, were then in a state of 

 emigration and shifting their quarters, and might perhaps 

 come from the great hop plantations in Kent or Sussex, the 

 wind being that day north. They were observed at the 

 same time at Farnham, and all along the vale at Alton." 



(404.) Whilst recently on a short visit to Northaw Park, 

 my attention was directed to the destruction which had this 

 year taken place amongst the firs ; and most elegant trees, 

 of fifty years' growth, upon the lawn, were so much da- 

 maged, as to render it doubtful whether they would ever 

 recover. I am informed also that in some places hundreds 

 of these trees have been totally killed this year by the 

 ravages of the insect, but I am uncertain as to the exact 

 creature which has caused the injury. 



Locusts are also said to have appeared in the east this 



